In late L3 larvae, LIN-10 is present in descendants of the vulval precursor cells. Not detected LIN-10 staining in the vulval precursor cells in L2 or early L3 larvae, possibly because strong LIN-10 staining in adjacent ventral cord neurons obscures low-level LIN-10 expression in the vulval precursor cells at this stage. LIN-10 is expressed at high levels in neurons, including ring neurons, ventral cord neurons, dorsal cord neurons, lateral neurons, and neurons in the tail.
mNG::LIN-7, LIN-2::mK2 and mNG::LIN-10 were found to bebroadly expressed in the worm. In L3 larvae, they were prominentlyexpressed in VPCs and neurons, whereas only LIN-7 and LIN-10 weredetectable in the somatic gonad primordium. In the VPCs,endogenous mNG::LIN-7 was strongly cytosolic, frequently found atpunctae, and occasionally localized to basolateral membranes.
mNG::LIN-7, LIN-2::mK2 and mNG::LIN-10 were found to bebroadly expressed in the worm. In L3 larvae, they were prominentlyexpressed in VPCs and neurons, whereas only LIN-7 and LIN-10 weredetectable in the somatic gonad primordium. In the VPCs,endogenous mNG::LIN-7 was strongly cytosolic, frequently found atpunctae, and occasionally localized to basolateral membranes.
mNG::LIN-7, LIN-2::mK2 and mNG::LIN-10 were found to bebroadly expressed in the worm. In L3 larvae, they were prominentlyexpressed in VPCs and neurons, whereas only LIN-7 and LIN-10 weredetectable in the somatic gonad primordium. In the VPCs,endogenous mNG::LIN-7 was strongly cytosolic, frequently found atpunctae, and occasionally localized to basolateral membranes. We found that LET-23::mK2 and mNG::LIN-7 overlapped at the basolateral plasma membrane in L3 larvae (from P6.p to P6.pxx). This overlap was more apparent in the differentiated vulval cells (L4).
Endogenously tagged LIN-2, LIN-7, LIN-10 and LET-23 EGFRallow for the analysis of their localization and expression patterns in other tissues. We found that all four proteins are expressed inneurons and sensory tissue in the head, and along the ventral anddorsal nerve chords. The intestine is prone to a highdegree of autofluorescence and was excluded from the initialanalysis. Whereas LET-23 EGFR and LIN-7 overlapped minimallyin the head, LIN-2 and LIN-7 colocalized strongly in theneural ring, and the ventral and dorsal nerve chords. Ofnote, we observed that LIN-2 was more strongly expressed in theisthmus of the pharynx than LIN-7. In contrast, LIN-7 wasmore strongly expressed in the gonad and uterus than LIN-2. LIN-10 overlapped minimally with LIN-2 in the neural ring and nerve chords, and shared very little overlap with LET-23 EGFR in other neural tissues in the head of the worm. LET-23::mK2 was strongly expressed in the excretory duct cell in which it signals through the LET-60 Ras/MPK-1 ERK pathway to regulate excretory duct cell development (Abdus-Saboor et al., 2011; Yochem et al., 1997).